'60 Minutes': Five quotes from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's interview

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand says President Donald Trump's latest tweet about her was a 'sexist smear' aimed at silencing her voice. The New York Democrat says she won't be silenced on the issue of sexual harassment. (Dec. 12)
AP

The 60 Minutes profile was largely positive, showing the Democratic senator walking along her family's property where she grew up in Albany, taking a sled ride with her mother and speaking at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration at the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network in Harlem.

"Once President Trump was elected I think something changed, and I think it changed for women," Gillibrand said.

Chele Chiavacci Farley, a Republican, is seeking the GOP nomination to run in November against Gillibrand, who is seeking a second, six-year term.

"I think he should resign, and if he's unwilling to do that, which is what I assume, then Congress should hold him accountable. We are obligated to have hearings."

She sparred with Trump on Twitter: He called her a "lightweight" who would "do anything" for campaign cash.

Gillibrand called it a "sexist smear. There's ways to undermine women and belittle women, and that's one of them."

On changing from a moderate-to-conservative upstate Democratic congresswoman to a liberal senator:

"After I got appointed, I went down to Brooklyn to meet with families who had suffered from gun violence in their communities. And you immediately experience the feeling that I couldn't have been more wrong. … I only had the lens of upstate New York."

She said she was "embarrassed" by her stances as a congresswoman -— including an "A" grade from the NRA.

"I was wrong. What it's about is the power of the NRA and the greed of that industry."

On initially opposing amnesty for immigrants and sanctuary cities that protect undocumented immigrants:

"I came from a district that was 98 percent white. We have immigrants, but not a lot of immigrants. And I hadn't really spent the time to hear those kind of stories about what's it like to worry that your dad could be taken away at any moment."

She added, "I just didn't take the time to understand why these issues mattered because it wasn't right in front of me. And that was my fault. It was something that I'm embarrassed about and I'm ashamed of."